Mosin Nagant History

According to the 5th edition of Military Small Arms of the 20th Century the first Mosin Nagant Sniper Rifles did not appear until 1937/38. These first units were fitted with the PU scope, later versions were upgraded to the PE scope. According to the information in this book these rifles were no different than standard issue Mosin Nagant. With the exception of the scope mount and bolt handle.My own thought on this are.Aside from these being no different than the off the shelf Mosin one could speculate that the these Snipers were probably cherry picked from the assembly line as they were tested. I just can't imagine sending a sniper out with a rifle that does not cycle well or isn't just a tad bit more accurate than the others. I base this on the fact that there were a lot of enemy solders at Stalingrad who didn't come home because of the shooting acumen of these rifles and their bearers.

SeeyaMark

“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” (James Madison, The Federalist Papers #46 at 243-244)

Your assesment of "cherry-picking" the best M-N's for use as "Snipers" is spot on , Mark. Up until the German invasion ; M-N's coming off the assembly line were "test fired" at a range at the various factories , and those weapons which shot the tightest groups of two: three to five shot groups were designated as "Sniper" rifles. They were then segregated and shipped to the proper units for disbursment to designated shooters. They talked about this on a documentary about the M-N on the Military / Heroes channel.

I just acquired a 1936 Hex Tula 91/30 with the sniper stamp on the barrel. all matched numbers. Was never drilled to mount a scope.I'll send photos this afternoon - I mean I literally just acquired it yesterday. You know how barrels are judged on Milsurp rifles - this one still has rifling showing at the crown. Action and trigger are as smooth as my Finn M39. I read that many '36 Hex Tula snipers were mounted with the PEM side mount which went into production in '37.Old Man on the Mountain

just ran into a web site called Jager Platoon when researching Finn M39shas some good data on Mosin sniper rifles that I've not seen beforethe data on eye relieve for the Mosin sniper scope was good data for my PEM build out.http://www.jaegerplatoon.net/RIFLES7.htm

as noted on this web site, most captured Mosin sniper rifles were sent home by Finn troops and never turned over to the Finn Army.the were very prized by Finns as hunting rifles

Well not just that but usually it meant the sniper that used it was dead. Most of the time the Russians carried a book to log their kills. Maybe the books made it to HQ but the rifles mysteriously never made it.

It's interesting that you said it's stamped a sniper but never drilled. Where are you looking for the holes?

ThanksMark

“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” (James Madison, The Federalist Papers #46 at 243-244)

I eventually found the scope holes. They were up on the Hex part of the receiver for a PE center line scope mount. They had been welded over, polished, then refinished. In the light at an angle,I saw one indentation and scraped the finish off - all 6 holes were there where expected for that vintage of scope mount. The rifle still had it's shims and tuned trigger, but a standard bolt had been installed. It also had a taller front sight post and the globe was centered, not slightly offset, as my other 91-30 are.